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Kansas Bikini Bottom: IM 25 Lagoon


ksadam

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I've been out of the saltwater hobby for quite sometime but after taking the kids and wife to a new local saltwater shop we all decided we needed a saltwater aquarium. I've been running a freshwater planted tank for about 3 years now and that is being replaced with the new reef tank(all the fish and plants are now in a 60 gallon summer tub outside and doing great). I built a new stand because I wanted to highlight the filtration and equipment along with the livestock that will eventually fill the top, which is why I have the open stand design. I was hoping to get some advice as far as equipment goes if anyone has a chance to look over my plans. Glad to be back!!

 

 

-Equipment List-

30 gallon aquarium 36x12x16

20 gallon sump, ATO reservoir will be on the left 4 inches of sump, Modular Marine Refugium Baffles

Tunze Osmolator ATO

Modular Marine 400gph Nano Overflow Box

Glass-holes loc-line 1/2" return

Reef Octopus Varios-2 DC Return Pump (792gph)

Jebao SW2 Wavemaker (660gph)

Cobalt Neo Therm 100w Heater

agrobrite 4x24w T5HO fixture

bulbs- 1- GE 6500k 2-ATI Blue Plus 1-ATI Purple Plus

 

 

 

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Christopher Marks

Great to see you back @ksadam!

 

That was a really nice freshwater aquarium you built, the balance of the aquascape, very pleasing. I'm sure you'll make a really neat reef scape.

 

Your tank plans look solid to me, though I wonder if you might want an overflow that could handle just a little more volume? What do you have planned for livestock?

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I debated back and forth on the size of the overflow and ultimately chose the 400 gph, that gives me 10x water turnover running the pump at 300gph, that combine with the wave maker puts me at 30x times turnover combined which is probably a tad high. The bulkhead is 1” and the drain on the box is 3/4” so I could fesibly get a bigger outside box or just run down from the bulkhead if I needed more flow. 

 

I’m looking at doing a two island aquascape. Zoa’s on one, possibly mushrooms on the other, also going to do a macroalgae display. As far as fish go, the family wants some clownfish, I’m wanting a lawnmower blenny and either an orchid dottyback or yellowtail damsel. Probably gonna keep a couple skunk shrimp as well. So to sum up

 

Pair of Clownfish

Lawnmower Blenny

Orchid Dottyback OR Yellowtail Damsel

Trio of Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

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1 hour ago, ksadam said:

I debated back and forth on the size of the overflow and ultimately chose the 400 gph, that gives me 10x water turnover running the pump at 300gph, that combine with the wave maker puts me at 30x times turnover combined which is probably a tad high. The bulkhead is 1” and the drain on the box is 3/4” so I could fesibly get a bigger outside box or just run down from the bulkhead if I needed more flow. 

 

I’m looking at doing a two island aquascape. Zoa’s on one, possibly mushrooms on the other, also going to do a macroalgae display. As far as fish go, the family wants some clownfish, I’m wanting a lawnmower blenny and either an orchid dottyback or yellowtail damsel. Probably gonna keep a couple skunk shrimp as well. So to sum up

 

Pair of Clownfish

Lawnmower Blenny

Orchid Dottyback OR Yellowtail Damsel

Trio of Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

No not the Damsel!

Also, if you decide to keep coral or anemones I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts 🍩 you end up flushing those 🦐

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😅 y’all are making me feel bad about taking down the planted tank haha. Although I liked the planted tank and put a decent amout of work into it the time came for something new. I’ve always missed my 5.5g nano reef that I had filled with mushrooms, zoas and some lps...also my favorite fish I’ve ever had(yellowtail damsel) such a character that guy was.

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Christopher Marks
19 minutes ago, ksadam said:

😅 y’all are making me feel bad about taking down the planted tank haha. Although I liked the planted tank and put a decent amout of work into it the time came for something new.

"The water is always greener on the other side" ...or something like that 😂

 

You'll definitely enjoy the new challenge and build process. Good thoughts on the overflow, it will look nice and compact too. I wasn't familiar with Modular Marine, neat stuff!

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5 hours ago, ksadam said:

😅 y’all are making me feel bad about taking down the planted tank haha. Although I liked the planted tank and put a decent amout of work into it the time came for something new. I’ve always missed my 5.5g nano reef that I had filled with mushrooms, zoas and some lps...also my favorite fish I’ve ever had(yellowtail damsel) such a character that guy was.

I like the yellow tail damsel too, great colors.  I used to have one with a clown fish with no aggression problems.  

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Did a thing today...drilled the DT, vinegar cleaned the tank, frosted window film background, mocked up sump(need to pick up some silicon), made mesh screen top.

 

Things to do:

order return pump

silicon sump baffles

plumb overflow and return

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Aquascape DONE, flooded hardwood floor DONE, moved tank to garage to get everything dialed in before moving it back to the house DONE. I overflowed my DT while messing with the return pump. I have since modified the overflow and lowered the water volume in the sump to prevent this from happening again

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  • Like 4
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Christopher Marks

Looking good @ksadam, very clean design. The frosted window film is a great touch!

 

That's good you overflowed your tank right from the start, it only takes one time, and now you know its limits 😄 

 

Saltwater this weekend?

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11 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Looking good @ksadam, very clean design. The frosted window film is a great touch!

 

That's good you overflowed your tank right from the start, it only takes one time, and now you know its limits 😄 

 

Saltwater this weekend?

Hopefully going to pick up some salt tomorrow and get everything moved back inside. Going to order some dr.tims, pods, phyto and macro algae to start the system off on the right foot. The wife and kids are getting impatient haha they didn’t realize it was going to take this long to get fish.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Big Update!!

Almost 4 weeks since the last update. Got everything moved back inside after the overflow disaster. I'll lay out the dates below so everyone can get an idea of the timeline. Still planning on about 4-6 more weeks of running the system before I start to add fish, I am going on vacation at the end of the month and don't want to add anything before I leave just to be on the safe side(the person watching my house has limited knowledge of reef aquariums)

 

6/25/18- Moved system back inside, filled with RO/DI

6/27/18- Added Fritz Reef Pro Mix to 35PPT, dosed Marineland Bio-Spira, added 10g of frozen krill and 10g frozen brine shrimp

7/3/18- 10g frozen krill, 15g frozen brine shrimp, added chemipure elite

7/9/18- 10g frozen krill, 10g frozen brine shrimp

7/16/18-10g frozen krill, 10g frozen brine shrimp, ordered clean chaeto, pods and phyto from Algaebarn

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just got back from vacation, been gone 6 days and my chaeto is looking kinda crappy. Not so green, brown in spots and not clumped anymore sort of breaking apart. This is my first refugium so not sure what’s going on.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Huge update thanks to @duderubble picked up an IM 25 lagoon on Thursday got everything switched over Friday. A little concerned as the system is currently having an ammonia spike, dosed some Bio-spira today to help speed up this mini-cycle. Fingers crossed. And in case you AIO guys didn’t know they haver a built in beer holder 😂

Equipment List:

IM 25 Lagoon(Actual volume is 16.5g)

2 sicce syncra micra 158gph

Vortech MP10wQD(lagoon mode ~40%)

Cobalt 100w heater

Reefbreeders SuperLux

 

Livestock:

3 yellow line chromis

Red Mangroves(on order)

 

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  • Like 5
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12 minutes ago, ksadam said:

Huge update thanks to @duderubble picked up an IM 25 lagoon on Thursday got everything switched over Friday. A little concerned as the system is currently having an ammonia spike, dosed some Bio-spira today to help speed up this mini-cycle. Fingers crossed. And in case you AIO guys didn’t know they haver a built in beer holder 😂

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My biggest gripe about the new red sea is that there is no lip on the stand for my beer to be place down. 

Loving the scape.  

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@specore the beer doesn't usually last long enough to warm up, if we're being honest though don't drink and reef....I had mixed up 15 gallons of new saltwater in my brute trashcan Thursday night, may have had a few beers, read the refractometer at 35ppt, rechecked in the morning and it was definitely 30ppt haha

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24 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

Looking great! Did you ever figure out your issue with the chaeto in your fuge?

My light cycle was too long, it was causing brown alage to cover the chaeto. Cut back the light cycle and it bounced back pretty quick. That whole system is now set up at one of my friends house, he’s only going to stock fish but the fuge should help with the bioload he’s planning.

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